Mini-Itx recommendations

[faxij]

hi all,

i'd like some advice

first of all, are all mini-itx-boards linux & fedora/amahi compatible?

second: i'm looking for a mainboard with integrated cpu and graphics...
important: low power consumption, low cost
unimportant: performance (only basic amahi-usage...meaning the included server functions like file,print,dhcp,dns etc)

Any recommendations?

Lastly i'd like to hear confirmation on this matter:
i read that 3,5 hdd's on ide/sata are massive power consumers, however external usb-drives are using a lot less (like half) and 2,5 hdd's only as much as 2-5 watts..can anyone confirm that?

maybe also advice..? i'll need around 1tb+ storage. i have a limited budget, so many 160gb 2,5 hdd's won't do.
thought about a small one for the system itself and a 1,5tb usb wd hdd for storage...any comments/suggestions?

thanks for any kind of help in advance

- faxij

[cpg]

hi,

i saw some intel and also some nforce (amd am2) motherboards for about $109 today locally.
you may want to get a small form factor bareboes, or something like that.

most of them should be compatible with fedora by now.

about power, i am not sure why they would consume less externally other than lower temperature (power is exponential on temperature) and lower transfer speeds of usb ... so maybe they go to sleep more often?

a 1tb disk is $70 today ...

[cpg]

sorry for not being very specific (too late for me to be here in the forums) ..

other more experts in hardware than me will chip in soon

[kdoswald]

External use less power??? That does not make any sense. External HD use standard internal drives in a case. So would consume exact same power, plus figure the little power it takes to run the circuit board that lets it connect via usb/firewire etc.

2.5" do use less power since designed for notebooks. But 1TB in 2.5" would cost alot.

Found this page to find out power consumption with various itx boards http://www.mini-box.com/site/mb/Power_MB.htm About 20-30 watts more could use low end AMD processor and possibly save you some money.

I really doubt you will have any problems with support from fedora.

[faxij]

thanks, great link. since i cant afford big storage 2,5" drives i guess i'll live with those extra-watts

thanks a lot